Challenging the belief that national security agencies work well, this book asks what forces shaped the initial design of the Central Intelligence Agency, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the National Security Council in ways that meant they were handicapped from birth.

Bad design is everywhere, and its cost is much higher than we think. In this thought-provoking book, authors Jonathan Shariat and Cynthia Savard Saucier explain how poorly designed products can anger, sadden, exclude, and even kill people who use them. The designers responsible certainly didn’t intend harm, so what can you do to avoid making similar mistakes? Tragic Design examines real case studies that show how certain design choices adversely affected users, and includes in-depth interviews with authorities in the design industry. Pick up this book and learn how you can be an agent of change in the design community and at your company. You’ll explore: Designs that can kill, including the bad interface that doomed a young cancer patient Designs that anger, through impolite technology and dark patterns How design can inadvertently cause emotional pain Designs that exclude people through lack of accessibility, diversity, and justice How to advocate for ethical design when it isn’t easy to do so Tools and techniques that can help you avoid harmful design decisions Inspiring professionals who use design to improve our world

Elle Fiore wants a prince on a white horse. Maverick Wallace does not fit the description. It doesn't matter they shared the best kiss of her life, or her friends think he walks on water...and his Greek-god looks have absolutely no effect on her whatsoever. If only she can convince her heart he's not for her. Maverick is happy with his free and easy no-strings lifestyle. The last thing he wants or needs is someone complicated like Elle. He doesn't do relationships or sleepovers. She's beautiful, but a diva with a capital D. But something magical happens whenever they're in a room together, whether they want it to or not.

This book shows how to identify potential design errors and modify procedures in the design process to mitigate design-induced error. Real life examples are used to demonstrate the points being made. Many of the concerns raised in the book have come from a worldwide study conducted with designers, managers, and end-users.

The design and construction of buildings is a lengthy and expensive process, and those who commission buildings are continually looking for ways to improve the efficiency of the process. In this book, the second in the Building in Value series, a broad range of topics related to the processes of design and construction are explored by an international group of experts. The overall aim of the book is to look at ways that clients can improve the value for money outcomes of their decisions to construct buildings. The book is aimed at students studying in many areas related to the construction industry including architecture, construction management, civil engineering and quantity surveying, and should also be of interest to many in the industry including project managers, property developers, building contractors and cost engineers.

Software Engineering: A Methodical Approach (Second Edition) provides a comprehensive, but concise introduction to software engineering. It adopts a methodical approach to solving software engineering problems, proven over several years of teaching, with outstanding results. The book covers concepts, principles, design, construction, implementation, and management issues of software engineering. Each chapter is organized systematically into brief, reader-friendly sections, with itemization of the important points to be remembered. Diagrams and illustrations also sum up the salient points to enhance learning. Additionally, the book includes the author’s original methodologies that add clarity and creativity to the software engineering experience. New in the Second Edition are chapters on software engineering projects, management support systems, software engineering frameworks and patterns as a significant building block for the design and construction of contemporary software systems, and emerging software engineering frontiers. The text starts with an introduction of software engineering and the role of the software engineer. The following chapters examine in-depth software analysis, design, development, implementation, and management. Covering object-oriented methodologies and the principles of object-oriented information engineering, the book reinforces an object-oriented approach to the early phases of the software development life cycle. It covers various diagramming techniques and emphasizes object classification and object behavior. The text features comprehensive treatments of: Project management aids that are commonly used in software engineering An overview of the software design phase, including a discussion of the software design process, design strategies, architectural design, interface design, database design, and design and development standards User interface design Operations design Design considerations including system catalog, product documentation, user message management, design for real-time software, design for reuse, system security, and the agile effect Human resource management from a software engineering perspective Software economics Software implementation issues that range from operating environments to the marketing of software Software maintenance, legacy systems, and re-engineering This textbook can be used as a one-semester or two-semester course in software engineering, augmented with an appropriate CASE or RAD tool. It emphasizes a practical, methodical approach to software engineering, avoiding an overkill of theoretical calculations where possible. The primary objective is to help students gain a solid grasp of the activities in the software development life cycle to be confident about taking on new software engineering projects.

This monograph illuminates a design mindset for systems, artefacts, that not only survive, but thrive. Of itself an artefact is devoid of design quality – until encountered in a specific social context by human attendants. Design quality is the affect of an intertwining of (a) an artefact’s structural and behavior properties, (b) an attendant humanly conception of quality, an appreciative system, and (c) the enfolding social context of their encounter. To pursue quality in design is to interweave these three strands bound as a durable cord that evokes a visceral satisfaction – or “the delight of a ringing musical chord.” The human consciousness of design quality is fundamentally metaphoric and dynamic – a perception of reality mediated by a personal value disposition. In the continuum of experience, living moment after moment, both the attendant’s metaphorical appreciation and their sense of quality evolve. And thus, design quality issues from perpetual, concentric cycles of design-construct-experience-learn-assess-calibrate over the life span of relationship with an artefact. Design-as-a-verb’s purpose is to service the life in that relationship, sustain its survival, and hopefully, raise that life to a state of thriving. Design quality manifests throughout the cycles of design-as-a-verb, rather than as a product of it. Such is the mindset in which the designer must indwell and that design education must nurture. While all artefacts are systems, the domain of artefact design of which I am most experienced is computing systems. Therefore, I will rest upon that domain to explore a theory and practice of design-as-a-verb – designing thriving systems.